Six In The Morning

Japan nuclear crisis ‘over in nine months’

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has said it expects to bring the crisis under control by the end of the year.



Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it aimed to reduce radiation leaks in three months and to cool the reactors within nine months.

The utility said it also plans to cover the reactor building, which was hit by a huge quake and tsunami on 11 March.

Nearly 14,000 people died and another 14,000 are still unaccounted for.

Tepco unveiled its roadmap as Hillary Clinton flew into Tokyo to pledge America’s “steadfast support” for Japan’s reconstruction.

Siena Palio: scrap cruel street races, activists say

Italian animal-welfare group says local races must be stopped to protect horses

Tom Kington in Rome The Observer,Sunday 17 April 2011

Animal-welfare activists are demanding that the famous Siena Palio and other Italian horse races are shut down as concerns grow over the number of animals dying on the streets of ancient towns.

Staged in Siena’s steep Piazza del Campo amid medieval pageantry and thousands of cheering spectators, the Palio has pitched jockeys from the city’s neighbourhoods against each other every year on this course since 1659. But the leading Italian animal welfare group LAV (Anti-Vivisection League) is calling for the event to be scrapped, citing the deaths of 48 horses between 1970 and 2007 after collisions and crashes on the tightly curved course.

Misrata becomes Libya’s Stalingrad

The brutality of attacks on the rebel city reveal how important reclaiming the port is to Col Gaddafi

By Kim Sengupta  Sunday, 17 April 2011

The “dawn chorus” came in on time, salvos of missiles crashing down with shattering noise, burning buildings, killing and maiming people. It was the start of another day in Misrata, the city whose fate may decide the military outcome of this brutal civil war.

The besieged and battered bastion has become Libya’s Stalingrad. The fall of Misrata would not only be a huge symbolic and psychological triumph for Muammar Gaddafi, but also end significant opposition to his rule in the west of the country.

It is this defiance and determination only 150 miles from where he sits in Tripoli that seem to enrage the dictator of Libya.

Dynamic cities – despite challenges – key to nation’s future



By Garth Stapley | McClatchy Newspapers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Vibrant, dynamic cities hold mankind’s best hope for the future despite chronic problems with housing, transportation and crumbling services, some big names in public policy told a national gathering of land-use journalists.

“Cities have never had more intensity, more magnetism,” said Adrian Fenty, former mayor of Washington, D.C., on Friday at Harvard University. However, “nowhere have (economic) problems been seen more than at the city level.”

The forum’s participants pointed out _ sometimes in caustic tones _ how a lack of political will was risking America’s best hope for resuscitating its urban centers.

New theory on date of Last Supper

 

Leesha McKenny April 17, 2011

ONE of the most famous meals in history is commemorated a day late, a new book by a Cambridge University physicist claims.

Professor Sir Colin Humphreys, who was knighted last year for his contribution to science, argues that the last supper Jesus Christ shared with his disciples occurred on Wednesday, April 1, AD33, rather than on a Thursday as traditionally celebrated in most Christian churches.

The theory would explain the apparent inconsistencies between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke – which say the Last Supper was a Passover meal – and that of John, which says Jesus was tried and executed before the Jewish festival. It would explain another puzzle: why the Bible has not allowed enough time for all events recorded between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

Facebook looks to cash in on user data

Profiles, status updates and messages all include a mother lode of voluntarily provided information. The social media site is using it to help advertisers find exactly who they want to reach. Privacy watchdogs are aghast.

By Jessica Guynn April 17, 2011

Reporting from Palo Alto– Julee Morrison has been obsessed with Bon Jovi since she was a teenager.

So when paid ads for fan sites started popping up on the 41-year-old Salt Lake City blogger’s Facebook page, she was thrilled. She described herself as a “clicking fool,” perusing videos and photos of the New Jersey rockers.

Then it dawned on Morrison why all those Bon Jovi ads appeared every time she logged on to the social networking site.